The Origin of Mirajane's Headphones
by lyn452
Summary: Age gaps are relative, after all


**The Origin of Mirajane's Headphones**

It took six months in Fairy Tail before Mirajane transformed into her Satan Soul again. She still didn't really want to, but the master insisted. He tried reassuring her by telling her that all of her friends would be with her to support her.

It made Mira even more nervous that her friends would see her as the monster she truly was. Still, she took her place in the center of the circle, surrounded by friends as well as few of the older mages. The master nodded at her, signaling her to change.

Mira took a deep breath and then brought the demon forward.

Erza and Natsu naturally dropped into defensive modes at the frightening sight of her. The rest of her friends, and her siblings, just looked nervous, leery that she really wouldn't attack.

Mira could feel the tears building as she looked over to Makarov, who was wearing neutral expression. Next to him was a sullen teenager who she thought had been introduced as Makarov's nephew. What was his name again? Lexus? Something like that. His expression was not in its usual boredom, nor did he looked scared. In fact, he was grinning. "That is so cool!"

"Laxus," the master reprimanded.

"What? She looks all badass. Like an evil elf. It's frickin' sweet."

Makarov continued to frown at his relative, but the teenager's mirth spread. Her friends all relaxed and began to agree with the teen, "She does look kind of cool."

"My outfit's better though."

"Yeah, but your hair doesn't stand up like hers. And you don't get those veins. She looks more badass than you do."

"Shut up."

It was the first time Mira felt like she wasn't a monster. She could feel the tears still threatening to break, but now they were joyful.

She glanced over at the teenager again, who had slumped back into his bored look.

Laxus, huh?

* * *

She followed Laxus after that. Well, no. That wasn't fair. She watched her siblings, developed a friendship/rivalry with Erza, and worked on perfecting her take over magic.

The rest of her time, she followed Laxus, which was harder than it should have been. Mostly because all he seemed to do was train and sit by himself listening to music. The first time he caught her, he asked, "Mira, right? Did you need something?"

She squeaked, not intending to get caught. She stumbled over her answer, rushing the words out as quickly as they would come, "NoIdon'tneedanything. Ijustwantedtoumtellyouthatdinner'salmostready. Youknow,usualtime. Ok,bye."

Mira tried to talk to him again, and while he usually responded, he never gave more than one word answers. Determined to get more out of him, Mira continued her mission to get him to notice her. In her mind, he would notice her one day and they would fall madly in love and grow from childhood sweethearts to getting married and having ten babies.

But first, she had to get him to notice her.

After buying a new outfit, Mira sought Laxus out. She found him in a corner of the guild, alone, and appearing to be listening to music and looking over a book about dragons. She walked up with a confidence she wasn't sure she felt. But she wanted him to look at her the way he did when he first saw her transform into Satan Soul, and she knew her new outfit was also cool. She smiled at him, when he looked up. "Do you like my new outfit, Laxus?"

He briefly checked her out. "It's all right, I guess."

Mira had hoped for more of a reaction than that, but she just sat next to him, keeping her smile. Laxus tensed at her closeness, but she ignored that too. "Whatcha doin'?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Reading."

"About what?"

"Dragons."

"Why?"

He studied her for a moment before answering with a sigh. "Because I'm a dragon slayer."

"Like Natsu?" Mira gasped. "You were raised by a dragon?"

Laxus shifted. "No, I was raised by my father, I guess."

"Oh, where is your father?" Mira didn't remember anyone around the guild being introduced to her as Laxus's father or the master's son.

A dark look crossed Laxus's face. "He's gone."

Mira misunderstood. "He died? I'm sorry. My parents died too. I miss them."

"My father's not dead," grumbled Laxus.

Sensing it was a bad topic, Mira backed off. She noticed his headphones, nodding at them as she asked, "You're always wearing those things. Do you like music?"

Laxus no longer seemed angry, but he still grumbled his answer. "I guess."

Mira brightened, finally they found a topic in common. "What kind of music do you listen to?"

He shrugged. "Stuff. I guess I like rock music, you know? Like the older rock stuff?"

Mira didn't know. "Can I listen?"

He responded by handing her one of the speakers. Mira nearly squealed as she scooted closer to him, but she wanted to play it cool. She put the speaker to her ear.

The music was awful. How could he even hear the lyrics over all that noise?

But still, it was an afternoon well spent.

* * *

They bonded over music. In secret, Mira even learned to play guitar, wanting to write a song about Laxus, if she could ever get past her embarrassment to play it for him.

Laxus still never showed anything more than a minor interest in her. He talked to her about music and never acted rude toward her (which she was beginning to notice was how he acted toward most people), but he also still chose to hang out with his friends rather than her.

It annoyed her. She would have to take a drastic step to get him to notice her once and for all.

Her plan was simple enough, she would get him alone and then she would kiss him. And it shouldn't have been a hard plan to execute as Laxus was often alone, so when she sought him out, they usually were alone.

She just couldn't quite build up the courage to kiss him.

Finally, one day, they were seated close together listening to music. Mira could feel her palms sweating the entire time, so close to Laxus, but his eyes were closed. She knew he often liked to zone out as he listened to music. She never knew what he was thinking about and the few times she asked he never gave a better answer than, "Stuff."

She leaned into him, hoping if she did it quickly she would finally be able to do it. He seemed to sense her movement, because he opened his eyes, raising one eyebrow. "You okay, Mira?"

She kissed him. The headphones flew off both of them with her sudden movement. It was her first kiss, so she really had no basis for comparison, but he didn't respond, which seemed wrong. She stopped. "Did I do something wrong?"

Laxus still wasn't responding. Both of his eyebrows were raised now. "No…I…" His face shifted from surprise to concern. "Why did you do that, Mira?"

Mira looked at her hands, they were clutched together to try to calm her nerves. "It's just…I really like you Laxus. And I think we'll get married someday. And then we'll have like 20 babies and they'll have your hair and my eyes and they'll be like the most powerful, beautiful mages ever. We'll grow old together and then our babies will have babies, and we'll live happily ever after."

His eyes widened. Maybe she should have just stopped at "I really like you Laxus." But Mira wasn't one for half-measures. Laxus swallowed before answering in measured words, "Um, Mira, I'm really flattered. I mean, it makes sense, I'm pretty awesome, but..."

Mira could tell by the tone this wasn't going to go the way she wanted. She tried to stop the tears she could feel building. Laxus must have noticed because he bit his lip and looked away from her. "Er, like I said, I'm flattered by your crush, but…" He paused, nervously glancing back at her. The tears still hadn't started falling. "…but I just don't see you in that way. You're too young for me."

Today was a day of firsts for Mira, her first kiss and her first rejection. "I see," she said.

Laxus didn't seem to know what to do, he raised his hand before putting it back down again. He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it.

Humiliated, Mira saved him the trouble of figuring out what to do and ran away.

* * *

Mira avoided Laxus after that, but for the first time, he started to seek her out. Mira wondered if she was older if she somehow could have played it to her advantage, but she didn't have the experience to know how to do that.

That was the problem wasn't it? She was just too young.

But Laxus finally managed to corner her one day as she was training. Having just gotten out of Satan Soul, she retained some of the demon's anger. "What do you want, Laxus?"

True to form, Laxus wasn't put off. "I want to talk to you."

"What on earth would you want to discuss with a child?" Mira spat out the last word, as she toweled off some sweat. That when she noticed the bag in Laxus's hand. Her anger dropped. "What's that?"

He handed it to her. "I got you something."

Mira wasn't sure if the proper reaction would have been to throw it back in his face, declaring, "I don't want your pity gift!" But she was too curious not to peek. Inside the bag rested a pair of green headphones. She looked up at him.

His hands were now in his pockets. "You're always putting your stupid music on mine. I thought it was time you had your own."

Mira still wasn't sure about proper reactions, so she just decided to be polite. "Thank you."

She attempted to walk away, gift in hand, when Laxus stopped her, lightly grabbing her wrist. "You know, Mira, it really is the age thing. Four years is too much between 17 and 13. It's just too much." He paused. "But you know, when we're both in our 20s it wouldn't really matter anymore."

Mira felt something jerk in her stomach. "Really?"

"Really." Laxus gave her a small smile.

Mira responded with her wide one. "I'll see you on my 20th birthday then."

His smile widened. "Count on it, she-devil."

* * *

Mira spent her 20th birthday as she spent almost all her days, working at the guild bar. Throughout the day, flowers would arrive from various admirers. She would read the card and smile at the flowers, before setting them aside or handing them off to one of the patrons who looked like they could use a pick-me-up.

Cana brought in a bouquet of pink roses. "Another delivery, Mira."

Mira took one of the flowers out, smelling it. Roses had always been her favorite flower, even if a tad predicable. And pink was her favorite color. She wondered if she should be worried about a stalker.

There was a note, which she picked up to read:

 _I still remember what I said. Happy 20_ _th_ _birthday, she-devil._

It wasn't signed, but Mira knew who had sent it. Her first reaction was annoyance at his cockiness. How could he be so certain that she would remember after all these years? But then she realized it might be that he didn't sign the card in case his expelled status meant messages from him wouldn't be accepted.

She smelled the flower again. Cana leaned over the bar, attempting to read the card. Mira crushed it before she could. Cana plopped back, grabbing her beer. "Who are they from? Another admirer?"

Not wanting to explain the full truth, Mira replied, "Yes." She forced a smile on her face, grabbing the vase. "I guess I'll just put these in the back office."

Cana's laughter followed her, "Yeah. At least this one knew your favorite flowers."

Did Laxus do that on purpose or was it just a happy coincidence? Considering how often she babbled to him over the years, it wouldn't surprise her if she'd mentioned it at some point.

But she would be surprised that he actually listened and remembered it.

She smelled her single rose again. She tossed the rest of the flowers in the trash along with the card. She moved to throw out her single rose as well, but she couldn't do it. Instead she moved over to the mirror, changing her hair to be more like the ponytail of her youth.

She placed the rose near the base of the ponytail. For a moment, she saw her 13-year-old self in the mirror, grinning.

She'd finally gotten what she always wanted.

Mira settled into a sad smile. Life never worked out the way anyone planned it. But she grabbed her headphones as she walked out of the office.

She was in the mood for some nostalgic music as she entered the next decade of her life.

* * *

 **A/N.** So the timeline may not be perfect, but it's my best guesstimate.


End file.
